Forbidden Nightmare

Chapter 70: The Holy Mother
"Young knight, you are not welcome here."

The arrival of the two attracted the attention of Sister Colette, and her wrinkled face became stern.

Li Nanke came to the old nun and said, "Madam, we want to visit the monastery because of our devout faith in Our Lady of Jiao Rong..."

"The Virgin Mary has already died. There is nothing to see. You can go back."

The old nun's tone was indifferent, leaving no room for negotiation.

"Ma'am, we have come all the way from a faraway place just to visit, nothing else."

"No, I told you, there's nothing to see."

Seeing that the other party was giving him a cold shoulder and refused to negotiate, Li Nanke changed his way of communication.

"Since there is nothing to see, why are you waiting here, ma'am, and not letting others get close?" He smiled and continued, "We are two young and strong knights, and you... I'm very presumptuous to ask, if we want to force our way in, can you stop us?"

Sister Colette's expression grew colder.

"I should maintain the proper etiquette of a knight towards my elders, which is why I am asking for your consent here, but you seem to have misunderstood... This is a notice, not a request."

Li Nanke laughed, ignored the old nun, and walked towards the monastery gate on his own.

Colette slowly stood up from the rocking chair, staring at the backs of the two people, silently chanting strange syllables...

It was at this moment that Renault frowned, turned around suddenly, and his figure flashed.

The wolf-headed sword burst into flames, and the surging flames swept across, obscuring the old nun's vision.

"Shh!"

When the flames died down, Colette stood frozen in place, her mouth slightly open, motionless.

Because the cold sword tip was against her lips, with a flick of the wrist of the hand holding the sword, her teeth would be broken and her tongue would be crushed, making her lose the ability to recite prayers forever.

Renault snorted coldly and put away his sword: "If the target of your prayer just now was not the ground in front of you, but us, you would be dead."

"Flame Breath? You are the Punishment Army!" Colette gritted her teeth.

Li Nanke turned around and asked: "Madam, you seem to be very hostile to the Punishment Army?"

Colette took two steps back and sat on the president's chair, saying calmly, "I can't stop you. There's nothing to say."

Li Nanke was not in a hurry to enter the monastery at this time. He came to the old nun and said slowly: "Madam, you have mastered some prayer power, which can prevent most ordinary people from entering the monastery."

"Just now, the two of us were trying to force our way in, and your intention was to stop us, not to actually hurt us. This means that you didn't have much malicious intent from a subjective point of view."

"But for some reason, you were hostile to the Punishment Army and the Holy Society. So when you found out that we were from the Punishment Army, you gave up the idea of ​​stopping us and even looked forward to us entering the monastery."

"You did this because the monastery is hiding a secret that cannot be told. This secret is very dangerous. Anyone who wants to reveal the secret may lose his life."

"Am i right?"

Colette shook her head. "I stopped them because there are still some valuable things in the monastery. How could I have the courage to stop you, the Punishment Army, from taking what you like?"

Li Nanke did not refute, pointing at Renault who was standing beside him, and said, "This knight was once the chief instructor of the Punishment Army. His name is Renault. He also has another identity, that is, the brother of Lady Yongtong."

"Reno left the Holy Order and the Punishment Army because he could not stand the atrocities of the Holy Order." "And I am a knight of the Order of Sorrow. I wonder if you have heard of the war between the Order of Sorrow and the Holy Order."

Colette looked at the two of them and hesitated for a long time before asking, "Where's the evidence?"

Li Nanke smiled slightly, knowing that the matter was settled and it would not be difficult to prove his identity.

Renault took out the identification documents of the relief association, and after checking them, Colette finally confirmed the identities of the two.

"Madam, can you tell us now what secrets are hidden in the monastery?"

With an apologetic look on her face, Colette led the two into the dilapidated wooden house, brewed a pot of herbal tea, and began to tell the story.

"Since you are fighters against the Holy Order, I don't have to hide this secret any longer."

"The Virgin Mary's real name is Felicia. She has a beautiful face. Her beauty makes everyone who sees her stop and stare. Not only that, Felicia has a kind heart. She is a devout and kind believer who always treats everyone around her well."

“Her face inspired many artists’ creative passions, and artists have used Felicia as a source of inspiration to create one masterpiece after another.”

As she spoke, Colette took out a small stone statue. The statue seemed to be quite old, and the image of the woman was rather blurry, but it was still possible to tell that she was extremely beautiful.

"But as time went by, people's worship of her beauty gradually surpassed the original boundaries, and they even began to use her image to replace those ancient and distorted statues of the First Grace Holy Father for prayer and worship."

"The Holy Council spread the news to the ignorant people: Felicia herself was deeply horrified by this, because she always believed that she was just an ordinary woman and should not enjoy such an honor. Her deep humility and reverence for faith made her unable to tolerate such things happening again."

"So Felicia made a surprising decision. She destroyed her face with boiling olive oil to express her firm belief and respect for the Holy Father."

"But in fact, only a very few people know that Felicia was forced to disfigure herself out of fear of the Holy Synod. She was afraid that the Holy Synod would be persecuted by the church because her statue replaced the statue of the First Divine Father."

"Because no woman would not care about her appearance. To destroy such a beautiful face with her own hands is an extremely painful thing for Felicia."

"It was precisely because of this extreme pain that the grace of the God of Pain descended. The burns on Felicia's face did not heal over time. Instead, boiling hot oil continued to seep out of the wounds, causing her to suffer from burning pain day and night."

"The Holy Society finally let down its guard, and Felicia was eventually canonized as the 'Scorched Mother' by the Holy Society. She was placed under house arrest in a monastery for life, becoming a tool for the Holy Society to absorb believers."

"It was not until Our Lady of Sorrow had grown old and lived out her miserable life in the monastery that the Holy Society let her go and abandoned the useless monastery."

"The Holy Society let her go because she is no longer useful after death, but the Divine Grace of Pain did not let her go..."

"In the dark mausoleum beneath the monastery, the God of Pain descended upon her once again. After her death, she turned into a gigantic, terrifying monster, with boiling oil forever flowing down her face. She suffered endless agony and torture."

"I kept this secret and dared not reveal it to anyone, because if the Holy Society knew this secret, she would once again become a tool of the Holy Society, and the Holy Mother's soul would never rest in peace."

"I have been waiting for someone to come who can end Our Lady's suffering...Are you the one I am waiting for?"

As she spoke, Colette began to chant a prayer.

As the prayers echoed, her white hair gradually turned gray, and finally became shiny black.

The originally loose and dry skin on the face begins to rejuvenate, gradually becoming plump and delicate, and the deep wrinkles slowly fade away in the process.

At the same time, her once hunched and old body began to straighten up, turning into a round, smooth, and graceful young body.

Li Nanke looked at the small stone statue, and then looked at Colette, who had transformed from an old lady into a young and extremely beautiful woman, and found that the two were somewhat similar.

(End of this chapter)